GREAT BRITAIN’S Jamie Cooke won the individual men’s gold at the first World Cup of 2015 in Sarasota, USA, to add to the women’s gold and bronze won earlier in the competition by Samantha Murray and Kate French.

The medal tally was a first in recent history for GB.

“I can’t remember us doing this before”, said Jan Bartu, PentathlonGB performance director since 1998. “It is a first to win both individual golds. We are all over the moon and it’s fantastic.”

Cooke, originally from Andoversford and now based at the University of Bath, built his success on a series of consistent performances across the four events – fencing, swimming, riding and then the combined event (run-shoot).

Bartu singled out his weakest discipline, fencing, for particular praise.

“Jamie put in one of his best fencing competitions ever and that set him up. That was a major, major breakthrough for him”, he said.

In the final event of the day Cooke clinched victory by overhauling Egypt’s 2014 World Silver Medallist Amro El Geziry after the second of four shooting stages. The Egyptian had started with a four-second advantage.

Cooke then held on to his lead ahead of Russia’s Egor Puchkarevskiy despite a nervous final shooting stage.

Earlier former world junior champion Cooke, with 20 fencing wins, went into the riding competition in third place overall.

As usual, Cooke produced a sizzling swim time of 1.59.21, the second fastest in the competition.

Cooke, on a horse called Montey Carlo, put his faith in a controlled and measured ride with the risk of going over the time limit. His gamble paid off as he went clear and only recorded four time faults.

“He rode very well,” said Bartu. “He was composed and technically solid.”

The men’s result followed a dream first world cup performance for GB’s women with Samantha Murray, the reigning world champion, taking gold and Kate French, the bronze.

“These results far exceeded our expectations,” said Bartu.

“They show that the athletes and the coaching and support teams are on track in preparations for the Rio Games.

“There was a strong field here and some strong results for emerging nations like Guatemala. That can only be good for the sport.”